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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2008)
PageA7 February 20, 2008 B lack H istory M onth TT Pioneering Oregon’s Civil Rights J All peisons Ur» or i w i m I m ! in ikU»iraB OTatct.dnJ sutler to r L /nnsdicnon rleirof dre C itize n s of t I ic llhited States a»id ifStdtc' W hereihthey tcsi.le. MoStatc skill make or < x enforce dhy law which shall iifiidoe rficprivi- 5-legcs or immunities </ciri/cns 4 the UnitrJ < Srdtes: nor shall d ily State deprive any person ' of life lih e rty . or properry, without due ' process of law: hordeny dny person w i t h i n ' jf$ jurisdiction the equal protection I First activists challenged discrimination with passion Beatrice Morrow Cannady was one of O regon's pioneer civil- rights promoters. Born in Litig, Texas, on Janu ary 9, 1890, she moved to Port land in 1910, where she met her first husband, Edw ard Daniel Cannady, a waiter at the Portland Hotel and the editor and co fo u n d e r o f th e A d v o c a te , Portland’s only A frican-A m eri can new spaper at the time. Beatrice C annady soon be came an active m ember of the c ity ’s small A frican-A m erican com m unity. In 1914, she helped found the Portland chapter of the NAACP and quickly became one ' dt the laws. photo courtesy op h ip O regon H istorical S ociety This 1964 photograph shows Sylvia Thompson (left) with her daughter, Addie Jean Haynes, and her grandson, Bryan Haynes holding up a poster-sized copy o f the Fourteenth Amendment at the Portland office o f the NAACP on North Williams Avenue. Fighting Laws of Discrimination Portland’s chapter of the NAACP stayed persistent The national NAACP formed in 1909. A Portland chapter opened in 1914 with Dr. J.N. Merriman as its first president, and Beatrice Morrow Cannady, the editor of an African-Ameri can newspaper, the Advocate, as the chapter’s first secretary. One of the chapter’s earliest goals was to remove the exclu sion laws from the state consti tution. After numerous failed campaigns spanning thirty years. Oregon voters finally repealed the exclusion laws in 1926 and The Fourteenth Amendment, which Congress passed in 1868, gave African Americans the rights of American citizenship — including stateeitizenshipand the right for men to vote. At that that time, American women did not have the right to vote. The Fourteenth Amendment effectively overruled exclusion laws written into the 1859 Or egon State Constitution, which sought to keep African Ameri cans from settling,owning prop erty or voting in Oregon. IL , . t , J..J 1927. The Portland NAACP also worked for civil-rights legisla tion in Oregon, fought to get African Americans into labor unions and opposed discrimina tory the city’s housing policies. In 1964, the NAACP chapter marked their 50th anniversary by a moving into new offices on North Williams Avenue in the Albina neighborhood of Port land. The new office also housed the NAACPCredit Union and a vot^r-registration office. PHOTO COI KTF.SY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL Beatrice Morrow Cannady, shown here in a 1929 photograph, was one o f Oregon's pioneer civil-rights advocates for African Ameri cans. GREGOR! R OLILVEROò “W hen evil w o rd s * o f h a tr e d , m e n s h o u t u g ly good m en m u st co m m it th em selv es to th e glories o f love. B lack H istory T imeline ____ 1887 St K IETY of the sta te 's most outspoken civil-rights activists. Regularly challenging racial discrim ination in public talks and in the pages of the Advocate, she became assistant editor o f the paper in 1912, taking overas chief editor and ow ner in 1929. She wrote scathing editorials about the routine discrim ination prac ticed in Portland and elsew here in Oregon during the 1910s, ‘20s, and ‘30s, noting that "not even the pulpit has been as effective for the advancement of our Group, and for justice as the press." A graduate of the N orthw est ern School o f Law, Cannady helped craft the state's first civil- rights legislation, which would have m andated full access to public accom m odations without regard to race. Though the legis lation initially failed, in 1925 Cannady worked on the success ful campaign to repeal O regon's notorious "black laws,” which prohibited African A m ericans from settling in the state and de nied voting rights to people of color. Cannady left Portland for Los Angeles in the 1930s, where she lived a quiet life until her death in 1974. W here evil m en w ould seek to p e rp e tu ate an u n ju st statu s quo, good m en m ust continued ÂU from A4 s e e k to b rin g in to b e in g a real o rd e r A ban on interracial marriages in the Washington Territory is lifted. o f ju stic e .” 1889 Washington gains statehood. The state constitution includes a ban on racial discrimination in schools. — Martin Luther King, Jr. Gregory P. Oliveros Attorney At I .aw 1897 California passes its first civil-rights legislation. O liveros & O ’B r ie n , PC 1914 9200 SE Sunnybrook Blvd., Suite »150 The Portland chapter of the NAACP. the oldest continually chartered chapter west of the Mississippi River, is founded. Clackamas, OR 97015 503-786-3800 1926 Oregon repeals its exc lusion law, amending the state constitution to remove it from the Bill of Rights. I 1927 The Oregon State Constitution is finally amended to remove a clause denying blacks the right to vote. 1948 The Supreme Court declares California'slaw banning interracial marriages to be unconstitutional. 1951 Oregon repeals its law prohibiting interracial marriages. W.E.B. Du Bois, civil-rights leader, scholar and one o f the founders o f the NAACP. 1959 Oregon voters ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution ol the United States. Salutes Black History Month Alberta Street Market 909 N.E. 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